Fleece Banana Hammock Rides Again!

For the third year in a row, the Fleece Banana Hammock team put in a very strong result in the Mill Cities Relay, finsihing 6th overall this year in 2:35.

Entered under the Somerville Road Runners banner, the Banana this year consisted of Jim Rhoades, Paul Young, Jean Dany Joachim, Dave Hannon and newcomer to the crowd, Peter Gallimore. The first leg went off very fast with some of the top runners in New England laying down fast times and putting the always fit Rhoades back a bit in the pack despite running his usual solid time. Young took the baton in around eighth place and began the process of chipping away, running down a couple runners. JD put in a PR time on his usual "baby leg" of 2.5 miles and gave the stick to Hannon, who was taking the 9.5 mile leg in the absence of our usual Russian Rocket, Dmitry Drozdov who's handled the long leg the past two years.
Hannon did his best to keep the team in competition, passing three teams along the way and handing off to speed demon turned marathoner Gallimore. Peter did a great job of holding onto our sixth place spot by holding off a pack of teams behind him including the Whirlaway masters team, always a daunting force to have behind you.


Honestly, have you ever seen a guy wearing purple tights look SOOO masculine? I don't know how he does it!


As always, the post-race party at the Claddagh Pub in Lawrence was better than most, with cold beer and warm soup.

Overall, it was another successful run for the Fleece Banana Hammock. Nice work boys.

(All Photos Courtesy JimRhoades.com).

Gatorade inventor dies

The Associated Press reports that Dr. J. Robert Cade, who invented the sports drink Gatorade and launched a multibillion-dollar industry that the beverage continues to dominate, died Tuesday of kidney failure. He was 80.

The AP report says "Now sold in 80 countries in dozens of flavors, Gatorade was born thanks to a question from former Gators Coach Dwayne Douglas, Cade said.

He asked, "Doctor, why don't football players wee-wee after a game?"

"That question changed our lives," Cade said.


I guess we all owe Dr. Cade a debt of gratitude for putting off the BONK for at least a few miles. So raise your plastic bottles to him one more time!

NETT men's, women's team win Andover XC titles

New England Track & Trail had a banner day at the Andover Country Club 6K XC Race this weekend, claiming both the Men's and Women's team titles at Andover for the first time.

It was a day for superlatives. The NETT Ponyettes came out in full force, fielding what is likely the strongest women's team ever assembled. While the women's race only scored top three, NETT would have taken the title if they scored top seven in this puppy! Finishing for NETT's women's team were: Karen Ringheiser, newcomer Mary Smith, Tina Wang, Adrienne Cyrulik, Jennifer Shultis, Laura Wieland, Deb Robertson, and Karen Miller-Medzon. Congrats on a well-run race ladies! VERY impressive turnout, running and scoring all around. It's a team win!


On the men's side, it was also a numbers game with NETT putting out a full squad with very good XC running from its runners. Up front Paul Miller ran a very strong race finishing second overall, setting NETT up nicely. Crazy Dave dropped the ball and let three guys scoot past in the last mile to score, but our 3-4-5 combination of always steady Paul Young, Dave Mingori and Jerry De Zutter sealed the deal with tight pack running (these three Woostah guys have been running races together like this for years and are a huge advantage in team scoring!) Big Ben Winther put out a great effort and Frank KJ toughed out an off-day but was there if we needed him to go all out. And Laura's boyfriend Kevin (sorry Kevin--didn't get your last name), laced 'em up and came out for the NETT squad as well. Again, a true team win.



Karen Miller-Medzon's two sons, Noah and Daniel, were also on the NETT team and represented us very well, both running strong with Daniel taking the Under 19 age category!

Special thanks to  Janos (aka the Hungarian Landshark), and Deb's mom (aka Mrs Roberston, I presume?)! And of course, our team photographer Nicholas again did a fantastic job of capturing the moment! Thanks again.

It's a long way from the early days of NETT, when we could barely assemble a five-man team at the 2002 Andover race (it was Dave, Paul Miller and three guys borrowed from Wheelworks, who we barley knew--at least then!) It was the first race we entered as NETT and we've been back to Andover every year since.

(Big Ben screams "Hey, who wants another BEER? I'm BUYIN'")

UPDATE: For those of you asking about the BET between the men's and women's team, as I had planned it, the bet was based on PLACING as a team--so since we were BOTH first place in our respective divisions, it's a TIE and will roll over to the Melrose Race. (If you score the first three runners on each team, it would be the men's team winning, I think, but that wasn't the bet as I understood it).

So it's onto the Melrose race in two weeks for the breakfast bet. Three people score on each team.

Dasvidania Comrade!

As most of you know, we'll be losing Dmitry to the U.K. for a while, but he's promised to return here to the states with Venus as soon as possible (Here's a nice pic from his sendoff party at the Skellig) While over there, he will be grooming Venus to be a strong addition to the women's team by running her up and down every Fell he can find. (Is it a Fell? Or a Fells? Whatever.)

And here in the states, Paul Miller and Nick Cotton will be tutoring us British Phrases (This link is fairly amusing) to use when we head over to visit Dmitry and Venus.

Happy Travels, Russian Rocket.

Ayer 5K is overrun by Coyotes!

NETT put in another strong showing at the Ayer Firefighters Thanksgiving Day 5K, taking four of the top 10 spots and one of the top 5 women's spots.

Dmitry Drodov made the most of his last race here Stateside (at least for a while) by crushing the course record and winning the race in 15:09. This was Dmitry's fastest 5K time since living in the Boston area, a great way to cap off his racing before shipping off to the U.K. this weekend.

Jerry De Zutter put in a very strong run, clocking 17:36 good for 6th place overall and top master spot. Young John Kinnee was just a few clicks behind in 17:42 and Frank KJ only a few more back in 17:51, good for third master.
(Jerry does his always popular Fonzie impression for the adoring Master's Groupies)

The "Purple Heart and Wounded Knee" award goes to Tina Wang, who took a nasty spill after the two-mile mark and split her knee open. Not the least bit deterred, Tina tied her shoes, dusted off her leg and stood up and PUT THE HAMMER DOWN, to finish in 21:24, second in her age division. Crazy Dave ran with Tina for the race but is on the record as saying he was not at all responsible in any way, shape or form for Tina's mishap. Again..I didn't push her, not matter WHAT that video shows!
(Crazy Dave pouts like a baby as all the other NETTers show off their awards!)


After the race, it was off to Jerry's parent's house in Harvard for the annual Tri Town Turkey Trot, a 5K fun run around the neighborhood. NETTers Paul Miller (and Candace and Alex) came out as well as Toledo Joe Hardin for the jaunt. (No reports from the post-run football game--we'll call the hosptials to see if Jerry's been admitted yet).

Final Grand Tree Trail Race Series results posted

The final rankings for the Grand Tree trail running series have been posted and there's a few NETT names on the list. For the uninitiated, the series scores in two ways: First total points based on total number of races you do (the stoneheads) and secondly, a per-race "average score" percentage.

In the total points category, the top NETT finisher was Crazy Dave with 566 points over six races. Dima Feinhaus had 409 points over five races. And then there were some interesting "ties" for NETT-- Paul Young had 365 over four races and John Kinnee was the next name on the list, just behind with 364 over four races.

And ironically, Karen Ringheiser just outranked Dmitry Drozdov by one spot (Granted she did four races to get her 489 points and Dmitry only three). Frank KJ and Adrienne each had two races also.

In the overall average scoring, in the "six races or more" category, Crazy Dave was ranked fourth overall with a 94% average. In the five race category, Dima F was 24th with an 81%. In the four races category, Paul Young and John Kinnee were 12th and 13th respectively with 91% rankings and Karen was 56th with a 72%. Jennifer Shultis was in the three-race category with a 71% ranking.

I'm sure I missed some folks, but that's a quick review. It's a great series--it's free, volunteer operated and, as near as I can tell, pretty darn accurate. Kudos to Rob Higley of WMAC for compiling the results (I think it's all Rob?).

Ponyettes make challenge for Andover XC: Bring it on!

The NETT Women's Team has made a challenge and Dave has accepted on behalf of the men's team at the upcoming Andover XC Race. Here's the deal:

Whichever team finishes lower in their respective category has to cook a full breakfast after an upcoming run for the other team. Now, it may seem like a tough bet--the men's team has finished first at Andover for three years straight. Tough to beat that. BUT the women's team has a VERY solid squad lined up this year and currently has more members lined up to run than the men.

In the event of a tie, we'll roll the challenge over to the Assault on Mt. Hood XC race in Melrose December 9.

Tina takes sixth at Monson Half Marathon

Big congrats to Tina Wang, who finsihed sixth woman overall at the VERY competitive Monson Memorial Classic Half Marathon this weekend in Monson, Mass. (wherever THAT is?). AND her time of 1:38 put here FIRST in the 30-39 age group, cleaning up a nice $75 prize for her efforts. Typically modest, Tina says, "I was more than 20 minutes off from the first female. I guess not much chance going pro!"

Congrats Tina. That is a great result.

Report from Stone Cat trail races show NETT having strong results

NETT was well represented in the Stone Cat Ale trail races this weekend on a chilly early Saturday morning (races kick off at 6:15 AM-brrrrr). Official results are now available , and Paul Young finished the marathon in fifth place in a PR time of 3:27. In the 37.5 mile (three laps) distance, DimaD finished in first place chose to call it a day in 4:57 (on pace to set a record in the 50). And Karen Ringheiser and Dima Feinhaus also both finished the 37.5 miler as the first and second women (HAH!). So that's three people each doing 37.5 miles for the FIRST TIME.

And Jennifer Shultis overcame some early issues to finish THIRD WOMAN in the full 50 miler (note the first two women were a mere minute apart in a course record time!). Here’s her report:

“Marathoners and Ultras all started together, but the marathoners first had to go out and do a short prologue - a one time 1.2 mile loop before proceeding to do two 12.5 mile loops. This meant that all of the marathoners had to work their way through the maze of trails congested with slower ultra runners. This was my first 50 miler, so I probaby went out too fast. In fact, when Paul Young (marathoner) passed by, he wisely advised me to watch my pace, but on the first loop I felt like I was coasting so I just let it ride. My problem was, umm, let's just say I had to go ...I ran the first loop in 2:03 or so then decided to go into the school to use the bathroom. Mistake! Major time suck...6 minutes. By the time I grabbed food and something to drink, I had been there 7 minutes. I actually even had a little trouble warming my legs back up after stopping, but after that mistake I knew to just use the woods (ahhh nature...). I have no idea what any of my loop times were after that, but I know I was hitting 40 minutes pretty dead on each loop getting to aid station #1 (at 4 miles) and then another 40 minutes to # 2 at 8 miles (for the first 3 loops), so I was holding close to a 10 minute pace. That seemed like a pretty casual pace.

Then someone told me I was 5th female leaving aid station #2 on the third loop really??). Shortly after I passed a woman and she couldn't hang. I was pretty excited to be in 4th and wondered could I move up another spot(?), but I was really feeling "it" now. I came into the turn-around at the start/finish and saw Dima, Karen and Dmitry all there. I would have loved to stop and find out what they were doing (quitters!! Just kidding -they each did 37.5 miles or 3 loops!!), but I decided to get in and out of the aid station as fast as I could. I knew the less time I spent there, that meant the less work I'd have to do on the course. Karen gave me a grilled cheese, I wolfed down a cup of gatorade and split--I wanted to be done. Then, surprise, surprise...on the way out I saw a woman coming in who I KNEW had been in front of me before (WTF?!?!). I never saw her when I passed her--she must have been in the woods herself??--so now I was thinking I was in 3rd place for women?? WOW! But then the fourth loop got really hard. My calf had been hurting me since the 2nd loop and now both legs were really stiff and hurting. I was hobbling a bit and I started getting clumsy.

I fell twice and kept stubbing my toes (Ouch!!!). My pace was really suffering, but after the last aid station, I started to feel pretty safe in 3rd place. After all, not a soul had passed me in the last loop and a half. I knew I just needed to put out enough to hold my position...


But then as I let myself walk this short hill about 2 1/2 miles from the end, I looked back and saw that the phantom woman ( the one I had never seen as I passed) was now back and she was catching me! Yikes!!! I started running as the trail turned out of her sight and just prayed(!!) that a) she had not seen me, and b) that if she had, that she hadn't seen me walking (detecting weakness). I have no idea where it came from, but I put my head down, clenched my fists and ran it in as fast as I possibly could. I literally have no idea where it came from--I'm not that competitive fo a person, but this one I wanted. I never let up and it's a good thing as that woman was probably less than 2 minutes behind me crossing the finish line.

Anyway, thanks for indulging me and my story. I guess I'm pretty excited as I never thought I'd do so well. I WAS 3rd female (yippie!!) 19th overall and my time was 9:13 and a lot of change (closer to 9:14 than 9:13).”


And DimaD has pic here.

Vlad goes 3:01, the "shark" has XC fun

Our buddy Vlad Luppov (he of the Shamrocks fame) ran the NYC Marathon in a very solid 3:01. Considering he only had about 1.5 months of decent training post-injury, this is a phenomenal run for V.

Also this weekend, Janos Mako (aka the Hungarian Shark--that's just me trying to make up a nickname--did it work?) was at the Amherst NH XC Festival and had this to say:

"The men’s XC race was not well attended, I think there were only about 25 men. There were a lot of kids races earlier in the day, and the course will host the Junior Olympics XC event next weekend. The course featured well maintained trails mostly through the woods, and around a pond. There were 2 short but steep ascents with steep descents, a steeplechase gate, some empty stream beds, but most of the course was rolling hills up and down through the woods, with a lot of turns. A tougher course because of the rolling hills, I ran 40 seconds slower (20:01) than at the Mayor’s Cup for the same 5k distance. I finished 18th and I think I was 6th master. The only team that seemed to have a lot of runners there was the SISU team."

NETT takes wins at Busa Bushwack, Genesis Battlegreen

Sunday was a winning day for NETT as Adrienne Cyrulik took the women's title at the Busa Bushwack Trail Race and Dmitry Drozdov returned to the Genesis Battlegreen 10K in Lexington to take the win.

First, the report from the Busa Bushwack trail races (UPDATE: Link for results not working--check back later) In only her second full trail race Adrienne outran all of the women in the 9.3 mile race to win in 1:11:31. "I think this really IS my sport!" she said after the race, obviously now a full-on trail racing fan. She won a pair of Saucony running shoes for her efforts in addition to the unique trophies given out by the one and only Richard Busa himself.

NETT had a strong showing on the men's side as well in the 9 miler putting two in the top 4. Crazy Dave was third place overall in 57:00 and Young John Kinnee was just a few clicks behind in 58:22 for fourth. Frank KJ used the race for a hard training effort and clocked a 1:044:55.

And NETT was well represented in the 5.3 miler as well. Paul Young took second overall in 33:11.

And special thanks to NETT's Anthony Chamberas who volunteered at the race, handling timing duties among other.

CLICK HERE to see more photos of the Busa Bushwack.

And while we were all running around in the woods, another group of NETTers was over in Lexington taking care of business at the Genesis Battlegreen 10K. Dmitry Drozdov avenged his bridemaid showing here last year by destroying the competition with a 32:21 clocking over the hilly 10K course (that's a 5:13 pace to us mortals).

And only a week off their tremendous runs at the Marine Corp. Marathon, Dima Feinhaus and Karen Ringheiser both put in great races at Battlegreen with Dima running a 39:41 and Karen crossing the line at 41:20.

Congrats to all. Check back for more details and photos as they become available.

Mayors Cup 2007 report

While much of our team was down at Wrentham, another squad of New England Track & Trail regulars put in a strong showing at the Mayors Cup XC races on Sunday.

Dmitry Drozdov gets the gold star of the day for uncorking a 25:22 in the extremely competitive 8K race, a very strong run even by Dima's extremely high standards. "Hell yeah, I'm happy with that run," he said. To put this race in perspective, Dima runs 25:22 for 8K and finished 31st. Whewwww, that is a fast race!

In the Franklin Park 5K, NETT's team finished 7th overall in the three-person team competition. Crazy Dave led the charge with a 17:14 in 21st place, followed by a nicely grouped batch of four NETTers-Ben Winther in 18:52, (free agent) Drew Hanchett two seconds back, Marcello Scippa another six seconds back (4th master overall) from Drew and Janos Mako 20 seconds back in 19:20 for 6th master overall. Full results posted here.

So a good XC race with good pals, followed by a Patriots Trouncing later in the afternoon, followed by a Red Sox repeat miracle that night, and it's about all this Boston boy could want!

NETT takes overall and four of the top 10 spots at Wrentham

Great results for NETT at the Wrentham du. Here's Frank KJ's race report:

Another multi-sport season wraps up with the Wrentham Halloween Duathlon. Two-time defending champion two years running Paul Miller took the lead from the get-go and at a relaxed pace; in fact so relaxed that the rest of us thought we were running too fast. Well that was all over at mile 2.5 when Paul pulled away from his sole companion at that time. After that he never looked back and steadily increased his lead. Paul and his Union Jack shirt cruised to a convincing overall victory in 56 minutes, still the only person to ever win this race.

Toledo Joe Hardin and Frank KJ battled it out in the M40-44. Joe took the charge from the start; Frank overtook the lead at mile 1 and led by 15 seconds into T1. The lead was short-lived as Joe passed Frank at mile 3 into the bike and steadily built out the gap to 1 minute before the final run leg. Joe ran very strong and thus Frank never got any closer. Joe was right on the heels of a couple of other guys but settled for 7th overall and taking first in the age-group. Frank finished 8th overall and 2nd in the age-group.

And Bruce Goode gets "rookie of the year" honors with his debut in duathlon an impressive 4th place in the M40-44. Expect more from him 2008 in both triathlon and duathlon.

Tina Wang continued to show her diversity finishing 6th overall and a mere 3 seconds behind the winner in the W35-39 age category.

Last but not least, Jim de Zutter also had his duathlon debut taking 2nd place in the M70-74. We need to give him a NETT jersey!

Results will be posted at www.firm-racing.com

NETT shows up in force at Groton Trail Race

Well, it was a great day for trail racing. Sunny and warm (a bit too warm at the 12:30 pm start) but the 10th annual Groton Trail Race got high marks from all eight(?) members that took part.

Paul took a week off from marathoning got a "V" in the race, taking first in the short race.

NETT was well represented in the the long race (9.5 miles) with two men in the top 10 and three in the top 20, while the women's team had three of its finest out as well. On the mens side, Crazy Dave took 5th, Young John Kinnee was 9th (?) and Frank KJ cracked the top 20 with a very solid effort.

On the women's side, Adrienne Cyrulik took to trail racing like a duck to water, finishing as the 5th woman overall in the race, despite her claims she was underprepared and unsure about the course, etc. Our off-road expert Jennifer Shultis snuck in the race in stealth mode but finished very well, as one would expect from the captain of the top adventure racing team in the country.

But the REAL surprise of the day was Tina Wang's very strong run--but more importantly her great attitude about it all. Tina's on the record as not being a huge fan of the off-road running, but given the size of the smile on her face coming into the finish (as captured in this great pic by her son/team photographer Nicholas) I'd say Tina might be mixing it up on the dirt more often.

Another pleasant surprise was the appearance of Crazy Dave's college teammate Shane Mason coming out and mixing it up on the trails like an old pro. Man, it was great to see him out there.

Race director Paul Funch did a fantastic job of marking the course for this race--every corner and turn was very clearly marked and the water stops were great. Nice work Paul.

Special thanks to Nicholas for the photos, Adrienne for the pumpkin bread, and Frank and Tina for taxicab.

Rick Report: Breakers Newport Marathon

Here's a great race report from our roaving reporter, Rick Cleary:

Hello running fans:

A report on today's Amica Breakers Newport Marathon in Rhode Island: I ran 3:46:20, so I didn't qualify for Boston (needed 3:35). For a while I thought I had it, I made it 20 in 2:38, right on schedule, but I suddenly got very tired and there was a big hill. I walked a little and almost gave up but got a second wind and ran OK from 22 to 24, arriving at 24 in 3:16 and thinking, "Hey, two nine minute miles and a can squeeze in there!" I ran the next 3/4 of a mile fast enough, I think, but there's a short steep up just before 25 and my legendary lack of mental toughness kicked in. Once 3:35 was out of the question (and my legs really hurt a great deal, not cramping exactly but powerfully achy all of a sudden) I gave up and walked quite a bit leading to the finish time that made it sound like I missed by a lot.

Conditions were OK, not great. High 60s and almost 100% humidity at the start so that by mile 1 (in 8:17) I was dripping and by mile 2 water was sheeting off of me. The sun never came out, though, so it never get worse.

My lead excuse is that Tommy, normally an all-American super sleeper, woke up last night and wanted to play from roughly mid-night to 3:30. Ann tried to do a long shift but he was loud enough that even I, another excellent sleeper, got up to consult. He didn't seem sick (and is fine today) but we gave him Tylenol anyway. Didn't work, as predicted on a front page article in yesterday's Boston Globe, ironically enough. I was up with him from 2 to 3:30, 30 minutes of book time, 30 minutes of TV, 10 minutes of trying to get him back to sleep in his bed, and finally I had the great idea to take him for a car ride, which worked. Nearly four before I was back to bed, and I got up at 5:20 to make it to the 8 AM start. Definitely my first marathon on about three hours sleep, but I'm not sure it made much difference. (I roomed with Alan Bowman and Shawn McDonald before a couple of Bostons and those guys were so nervous and excited that they didn't sleep at all and still routinely beat me.)

A graph of my personal "probability of re-qualification" would show it starting near zero and growing linearly to almost one by mile 18. I decided to look at the watch after the first and second miles, but then only ever three miles from 2 to 20 ... I hate information overload. From 2 to 17 my three mile splits were 22:31 (way too fast), then 23:36, 23:38, 23:38 and 23:42; perfect! Just what I was hoping, a little under eight per mile, and I was feeling stronger all the way. I maintained faith to mile 20, though 17-20 had slowed to about 8:30 almost the entire section was uphill, moving away from the coast. As noted above I gave up at 20 but by 24 I was back in good form and thought I was going to do it. The combination of not having run more than 17 miles since Boston (when I probably only ran 16 and walked 10) and that slightly too fast early start probably did me in when coupled with the sleeplessness.

At this early juncture I'd pretty much rank the four choices below as equally likely:
1.) Run another marathon this fall/winter and try again to qualify.
2.) Forget it, take a year off from Boston, and try to requalify next year while on sabbatical.
3.) Get into this year's Boston some sneaky way as fund raiser or playing the "it will be my 30th" card.
4.) Run Boston as a bandit.

I feel great as I write this at 4:30, just a little fatigue but can do things around the house, play with kids, etc. It's a very interesting mix of feelings of accomplishment (I was not at all sure I had a chance to qualify, so this was a pretty good effort) and disappointment (was hoping for good reason to quit being a good boy and losing some weight, as I have recently managed to get from 200 to 190, now it's clear I should keep aiming lower instead of bulking up for the Holidays!)

OK, up for a quick nap (thanks, Ann!) before hoping that the Red Sox make us 1 -1 in today's "athletic events of interest!" I'll be the guy sleeping in Section 6.

Rick

Strong results at Diamond Hill, MDI and Down and Dirty

First off, congrats to Young John Kinnee for defending his title at the Down and Dirty Duathlon in Lynn. John clocked a 52:23 on the Lynn Woods course, putting him almost a minute in front of second place. Here's his report:

"The Lynn Woods duathlon season came to a close at the Down & Dirty Duathlon. Although I'm bored of the course, this is a great event with awesome shirts, refreshments, and prizes. I did the first run in 14:39 and was in third place. The guy in first smoked the run and I was nervous but his bike leg stunk so he wasn't a problem. I was happy with my bike leg considering I haven't been riding much. I had about 30 seconds going into the final run with the $100 first prize on the line. I was able to hold off the field and finish in 52:20. My best time of the year was 51:50 but there were different rules for this race that slowed the transitions down a bit. Between the nice long sleeve technical shirt, the jug of Accelerade, the judge of Hammer Nutrition, and $100 it was a very successful race."

Thanks John and Congrats!
Also on Saturday, NETT put three in the top 10 at the Diamond Hill-Birchwold 22K Trail Race. Crazy Dave and Jerry De Zutter ran together for much of the race until a slight misnavigation split up their nice group and put the race into overdrive. Crazy Dave finished third overall in 1:39, Jerry finished (under slight protest) sixth and Dima Feinhaus cracked the top 10 with a 1:50 effort.

Meanwhile, up in Bar Harbor, Me. on Sunday, Paul Young continued his fall marathon blitz by throwing down yet another race in the 2:50s, this time a 2:57 at the Mount Desert Island Marathon, good for 7th place overall.

And over at the Baystate Marathon, Ben Spiess threw down a 2:55 effort and new NETTer Karen Miller-Medzon put in a solid sub-4 effort. Also of note, NETT pals Peter Gallimore and Jean Dany Joachim clocked 3:03 and 3:33 respectively.

NETT ladies hit the roads at Tufts, Chicago

In addition to their success at Wayland XC this weekend, four NETT ladies ran extremely good races on the roads this weekend.

First off at the Tufts 10K, Karen Ringheiser and Adrienne Cyrulik ran very strong performances on Monday. After racing at Wayland on Sunday, Karen cranked out a 40:37 for 91st place (out of 5,000!) and Adrienne ran phenomenally, clocking 42:38, good for 115th place, perhaps the best race we’ve seen her run.

And Dawn Mampreian and Laura Wieland defied the laws of physics and completed the Chicago Marathon in record heat (I think we’ve all heard the horror stories about Chicago this year). Their strategy of running together might have been the smartest one of the day, as both finished this grueling race that saw only a fraction of its entrants finish. Hopefully both are recovering well.

Congrats!

NETT shows up BIG at Wayland XC Challenge

NETT was out in force at the Wayland XC Challenge this weekend with mens, womens and masters teams.

The NETT women stole the show, tying with SISU project for the women's team win in the race. Karen Ringheiser led the Ponytails, cranking out a 21:18 on the 5K course. She was followed by the always reliable team captain Tina Wang in 23:11. Jennifer Shultis came up big for the team with a 23:57 and Deb Robertson was just a few ticks back in 24 flat. And new NETT recruit Karen Miller-Medzon chipped in to round out the team scoring with a 24:41.

On the men's side, NETT split in two, with an open and a masters mens team in the race, finishing second and third. Dmitry Drozdov did his usual damage, torching the field to win with a 15:58, becoming the first person to break 16 minutes on the Wayland course. There were nine--yes count them nine--more NETTers to follow, including NETT's cycling specialists(PMiller, Toledo Joe, JerryD and Bruce Goode--yes, that ws Bruce Freakin Goode out there hashing it up!). Marcello Scippa came out of hiding to represent VERY well out there and there were some new faces (Janos Mako, Ali Azerbajani and Rob Lee) and "Mr. XC" Frank KJ who coordinated the team efforts with phenomenal results.

Even Anthony Chamberas got involved timing some of the kids races.

Congrats to all and it was really a fantastic day for NETT. This, to my knowledge, is the biggest showing (15 people) at one event.

Overall results posted here.

NETT puts three in the top seven at Monroe

NETT’s trail running goons took to the hills at the Monroe Dunbar Brook 10.5 mile trail race on Sunday, with very strong results.
With some rain the night before, the course was wet in spots and a bit tricky for the trio of Crazy Dave, Mr. Young and Young John. The course heads out on a mile-long trot along a brook before taking a very steep turn to a hike/run section. After that, there’s more climbing, but of a gradual nature, to the 2,500-foot peak
Dave took third overall in 1:21, Young John was fifth in 1:24 an Mr. Young ran a solid 1:27 effort for seventh a week both pre- and post-marathon, if that makes sense.
And while the boys were off running around in the woods, Doris was hard at work in the two-mile version of the race, cracking the top 20.

NETT Multisporters do some MAJOR damage at Buzzards Bay Tri, Take the win at Mud Sweat and Gears

The NETT Multisporters really showed their stuff in two of the final multisport races of the year.

First off, down at the Buzzards Bay Triathlon there were some MAJOR surprises.

Not surprisingly, Paul Miller had a very strong race finishing 6th overall despite dealing with some equipment issues with the second fastest bike split and third fastest run split.
Somewhat surprising was Toledo Joe Hardin was leading Paul for much of the race, having a VERY strong race, finsihing one spot behind Paul with the 4th fastest bike split and a top-10 run split. Way to go Joe!
And VERY surprising was the re-emergence of Bruce Goode in his first (at least to my knowledge) triathlon appearance here in New England and his first race in quite a while. Bruce finished a VERY respectable 39th place with solid splits across the board. Nice work Bruce.


Also this weekend, BIG NEWS that Jerry De Zutter claims the title at the Mud, Sweat and Gears off-road duathlon. I don't mean Masters title--he won the damn race by almost FOUR MINUTES with a clean sweep, winning all three splits in the process. Here's his report:

I was hiding in the woods at the Mud Sweat n' Gears off road duathlon (1.8run-6mtnbike-1.8run-FIRM race). It was a very light turnout for the race but there was one guy out in front on the first trail run, I went by him about 1/2 way through that first run and it was clear sailing all the way from there, went on to post an ~4 min win. I was a bit worried about my race pacing with no one to race but needn't have because my finish time was only a few seconds slower than my fastest time on that course out of the ~8 times I've raced it (stretching back to mid-late 90's when I was fast in off-road multi-sport). I was happy with the effort I put in, and didn't take my foot off the gas almost the whole race. Great day for being out in the woods tearing up the trails.

Congrats to JERRY!